The Magic of Costume Design

Cosprop is a British costume house founded in 1965 by John Bright, an Academy Award and BAFTA winner, specializing in the creation of period garments for film, television and theatre. The general public has rarely heard its name, yet it knows perfectly well the films and series in which its costumes appear. The reason is simple: Cosprop works behind the scenes as a discreet artisanal workshop that never signs what it creates. It remains out of sight while shaping the visual authenticity of historical dramas, building eras, atmospheres and characters through refined tailoring techniques and meticulous attention to detail. The exhibition Costume Couture: Sixty Years of Cosprop, at the Fashion and Textile Museum in London, offers a rare public glimpse into this decisive force in shaping the historical imagery of the screen. It traces six decades of activity, presenting original costumes, accessories, sketches and archival materials that illustrate the long journey from script to set, from early prototypes to the final appearance under the lights of the camera. Over the years Cosprop has assembled a monumental archive of more than one million garments and accessories. It is a vast textile library that allows costume designers to recreate past eras with historical accuracy, from European courts of the early modern age to Victorian interiors and the early twentieth century. Many of the most recognisable characters in historical dramas owe their credibility to the work carried out in Cosprop’s workshops. Costumes seen in films such as A Room with a View and Out of Africa, or in series like Downton Abbey and Peaky Blinders, come from this archive or have been created specifically for those productions. The exhibition does more than showcase celebrated pieces. It opens a window onto the creative process, revealing historical research, preparatory sketches, fittings, and the adjustments required by directing and cinematography. It presents a world built on a careful balance of historical rigour and aesthetic sensitivity, where traditional tailoring techniques meet the practical needs of film sets, from actors’ movement to the frequent requirement for multiple copies of the same costume for action scenes. Running through the exhibition is a key question for today’s screen production industry, increasingly shaped by digital technologies. What role does sartorial craftsmanship still play in defining the visual language of historical storytelling. While many contemporary productions lean toward freer, more spectacular interpretations, Cosprop continues to focus on accuracy and reconstruction, suggesting that the appeal of historical dramas still rests largely on the tactile and evocative power of fabric. Costume Couture: Sixty Years of Cosprop ultimately brings to light one of the invisible protagonists of period filmmaking. It tells the story of the hands that, without ever appearing in the credits most people read, have helped shape entire eras on screen, dressing characters we recognise instantly and who continue to embody, through their costumes, the enduring allure of the past.